Camera Sony HX50: reviews of professionals

While sales of compact cameras are rapidly falling, a compact with a superzoom represents that niche of the market that continues to grow. The combination of a small body with a large zoom, offering an impressive range of focal lengths, attracts many who do not want to load themselves with semi-professional or digital SLR cameras with huge lenses.

Sony Cyber-shot HX50 opens new horizons in this field - it's the smallest camera with an amazing 30x optical zoom. It is so small that, despite the support of a typical range of focal lengths of bridge cameras, it fits easily in your trouser pocket. It's impressive, but does not necessarily guarantee great shots.

Specifications

The Sony DSC-HX50 is equipped with an Exmor R CMOS sensor with a resolution of 20.4 Mp. Unfortunately, the dimensions of the sensor itself are only 1 / 2.3 inches in contrast to the larger 1 / 1.7 "matrices of competing compact cameras.The sensor works in tandem with the Sony Bionz processor, which provides impressive shooting speed, including serial at 10 k / S at full resolution.The HX50 also has a sensitivity in the range of ISO 80-3200, which, if necessary, can be extended to ISO 12800.

It can not be denied that the key feature of the camera is its lens. A 30x optical zoom covers a range of focal lengths of 24-720 mm in a 35 mm equivalent. Supports the work of the lens, which, of course, will please many of its characteristics, Sony's image stabilization system. The zoom is provided by Sony G's proprietary optics with a maximum aperture range of f / 3.5-6.3. Another nice feature of the HX50 is the presence of a multifunctional shoe. Experienced users will be happy about this, so the contact allows you to use a number of accessories that extend the functionality of the HX50, such as an external flash, an electronic viewfinder or a stereo microphone for video recording. Sony HX50 allows you to capture movies in full HD resolution of 1920 x 1080 with a transfer rate of up to 28 Mbps, as well as in several other formats. At the same time, 30x optical zoom is fully supported.

As with most compact cameras on the market, the HX50 provides Wi-Fi connectivity. This feature allows the camera to connect via a special application to a PC, smartphone or tablet on Android or iOS. With this application, users can save their photos via a wireless connection in the cloud, share them directly or remotely control the camera, if necessary. Sony DSC-HX50 allows photographers to fully control the shooting process. For those who want the camera to take it into their own hands, there is an automatic setting mode along with a lot of photo modes and nine visual effects.

Design

Sony HX50 reviews of professionals called a well-designed camera that has all the features of the compact Sony. These include a protruding rubber grip, which ensures reliable retention of the camera when shooting. The hull is also assembled and trimmed qualitatively and, undoubtedly, will stand the test of time. Despite its relatively compact dimensions, the combination of plastic and metal provides a feeling of reliability that leaves no doubt.

However, the camera design has a number of problems. For example, the video recording button is next to the handle, which makes it easy to press, if you take the camera in a hurry. On the rear panel is the main control dial, which also serves for navigation. Unfortunately, it is small and uncomfortable, so when setting the shutter speed or aperture, it's easy to accidentally change the flash settings or enter the camera menu. On the top panel of the HX50 is an exposure compensation disk, and although this is a nice addition, you can not get rid of the feeling that instead of it the above-mentioned control wheel would be better. But in general, the HX50 is an attractive compact camera, much of which is borrowed from the successful Sony RX100 and RX1 cameras, and it will undoubtedly attract a lot of admiring looks.

Performance

The Sony HX50 certainly has many good sides, although the camera is not without its flaws. The autofocus is impressive, and at the widest possible zoom angle, the HX50 focuses instantly. The more the subject is approached, the more time it will take, and in low light the AF speed will drop noticeably, although this is not uncommon for such cameras. The camera of the Sony HX50 usually shoots very fast, even if the 30x optical zoom somewhat slows down the start, since it takes about 3 seconds to prepare for shooting from the off state. After this, however, the time between capture frames becomes more acceptable and is about 1 second, which corresponds to the average value for compact cameras.

Duration of autonomous work

The capacity of the battery is another nice feature of the camera. According to the manufacturer, the battery is fully charged by 400 shots or 200 minutes of video, and users note that after about 300 test frames and a large number of image views, the camera still shows a full charge.

disadvantages

However, as noted earlier, the camera is not without problems. The brightness of the LCD screen Sony HX50 user reviews are called insufficient to work in bright outdoor lighting. Glare in bright sunlight makes the display almost unusable in such conditions that it is very annoying.

There are also problems with a large range of focal lengths and the operation of the SteadyShot function. Effective enough at the far end of the zoom, it still hardly suppresses camera shake. A large handle might help, but this would affect the size of the camera.

Quality of photos

The image quality of Sony HX50 should be considered very scrupulously, given the large range of focal lengths and the 1 / 2.3-inch sensor. One potential problem with the relatively small size of the image sensor is the way of processing noise at high ISO. Unfortunately, this is the area in which the HX50 shows low results. The snapshot detail at settings up to ISO 800 is moderate, but it is above that relatively low level when the detailing really begins to suffer. But already at ISO 1600 most of the small parts are lost.

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX50 interference suppression system reviews professionals as very aggressive and at higher sensitivity values, and at ISO 6400-12 800 noise cancellation reaches its limit, and heavy, granular noise becomes apparent. The smaller size of the sensor also raises concerns about the dynamic range of the camera, despite the fact that the HX50 demonstrates quite impressive results in this area. Even in areas with particularly high contrast, the camera manages to capture details in the shade. In the theory of the 20-megapixel sensor, the sensor should provide very much detail, but the camera allows you to record photos only in JPEG format. Images suffer from compression and contain artifacts even at low ISO values, which could be avoided if RAW is used.

One area where the HX50 does well is color processing. The experience of Sony in this sphere is felt, as the color reproduction in good lighting is almost perfect, and the automatic white balance is accurate in different shooting conditions. The Sony HX50's exposure metering system is also excellent in good lighting conditions, proving equally reliable operation in traditionally problematic situations, such as shooting sunsets or reflections.

Should I purchase the HX50?

Those who are looking for a compact camera with a long zoom, at a similar price can find devices with higher performance than the HX50. Cameras like the Fuji F900EXR and the Samsung WB800F cost about the same, but have a smaller zoom, while the Samsung WB2100 and Fujifilm S8500 offer a larger focal length, but in much larger cases. In this regard, the HX50 looks like a good purchase, not without flaws, but if the big zoom is not critical, then you can find better options. Panasonic Lumix LX7, for example.

Conclusion

There is no doubt that the combination of a large 30x zoom and compact body is impressive, but the photos obtained are more satisfactory than beautiful ones. This is a decent camera, but only if you really need a long zoom.